PORT TOWNSEND — Two organizations are teaming up to help educate crabbers to cut back on the number of crab pots that are lost each season, which continue to capture and kill thousands of crabs.
Volunteers from Northwest Straits Foundation and the Jefferson County Marine Resources Committee were handing out information at Port Townsend-area boat launches last Saturday and Sunday, which was the first weekend of the 2017 crabbing season.
Volunteers will be back at it again this Saturday for the second weekend of crabbing season.
The information is to help crabbers measure their catch. Volunteers were on hand to discuss how to best set a crab pot to get the best catch and keep from losing the pot.
An estimated 12,000 crab pots are lost in the Puget Sound each season, according to a news release from the Jefferson County Marine Resources Committee and the Northwest Straits Foundation.
The lost pots continue catching crab, but with no one there to harvest them, the captured crabs simply die.
An estimated 180,000 Dungeness crab die this way every season.
The Northwest Straits Initiative has developed a checklist to help crabbers place their pots in more secure places.
Some points from that list:
• Pots should be out of the way of major marine transportation of ferry lanes.
• They shouldn’t be left in areas that experience strong tidal changes or currents.
• The marking buoys should be very visible.
• Weighted lines that sink below the surface will keep them from being cut by boats.
• Pots should be weighted to keep them from moving.
• Using cotton cord on the pots’ escape hatches will allow the crab to leave the pot when the cord decays.
More instruction of information can be found at www.derelictgear.org.
Crabbing season for the areas in the east part of the Strait of Juan de Fuca, Discovery Bay and Port Angeles Harbor opened last Saturday. Crabbing is limited to Thursdays through Mondays.
Port Gamble, Port Ludlow and Hood Canal areas were opened for crabbing season June 24. Crabbing is allowed Thursdays through Mondays.
The season for areas east of the Tatoosh-Bonilla line in Neah Bay opened June 6, while areas west of that line are open year-round.
La Push is open for year-round crabbing.
In those areas it is illegal to harvest crabs smaller than 6¼ inches and catches must be recorded.
More information can be found at www.wdfw.wa.gov.
